When the softball season kicked off two months ago, a cloud of questions surrounded the 2006 squad.
Eight freshmen and five sophomores on an unnervingly young team, a departed pair of NESCAC Players of the Year, and a diminished power-hitting core replaced by the infusion of some quick, though inexperienced and at times unpredictable, freshmen legs had some wondering whether the Jumbos could even repeat their 2005 regular-season dominance, much less redeem their postseason shortcomings.
Yet for all the uncertainties surrounding this year's team, the Jumbos once again find themselves in familiar territory - comfortably, though perhaps surprisingly, in the national top 25, on top of the NESCAC East standings, and, most importantly, playing good softball.
"From a team perspective, we haven't even talked about [the national rankings]," senior co-captain Jess Barrett said. "And that's a good thing, because we know that we're playing well, we know we can play well, and we know we can play better. We can't let anything get to our heads, and lately we've been doing a good job of that."
While Tufts won 11 straight after returning from the Sun West Tournament over spring break, the games were less than pretty, riddled with simple fielding errors and inconsistent bats. The team put together just enough hits and played adequate defense to keep itself out of a hole, but it was clear that the Jumbos would need to improve by the postseason.
"I'm pretty impressed with the way this team has played for being so young, but if we want to compete in May, we have to get better," coach Cheryl Milligan said this weekend.
And the Jumbos have taken key steps in that direction, rebounding from two split doubleheaders last week to sweep Bates in a pair of key divisional games on Saturday. While the 6-6 Bobcats were certainly not the Jumbos' toughest competition of the season, the games showcased the kind of play this team is capable of - no errors, 28 hits, and two mercy-rule wins that pushed the Jumbos to a perfect 4-0 in NESCAC East, far ahead of second-place 3-3 Bowdoin, who is already halfway through its divisional schedule.
The setup of NESCAC softball, split into an East and a West division, has allowed for much of Tufts' historical postseason dominance. Williams, the league's other goliath, is in the NESCAC West, leaving the Jumbos with traditionally weaker teams in the East, including Colby (6-13 overall, 1-3 NESCAC) and Bates (8-8 overall, 0-2 NESCAC).
This season, Trinity is the only other over-.500 team in the division, at 16-5, and Bates, Colby and Bowdoin sport a combined 25-35 record. Tufts is the only team to have scored more runs that it has surrendered and sits atop the divisional standings with sweeps over Bowdoin and Bates.
Three of the last four conference tournament finals have been between Williams and Tufts, and barring any huge regular-season upsets in the Jumbos' two remaining divisional matchups - exactly the kind that the NESCAC is famous for - the stage is set for another showdown.
"We're always thinking about it in the back of our minds that in the end that's probably going to be the situation," Barrett said. "We love it to be that way - Williams is our biggest rival. If we keep playing strong the way we are right now and don't underestimate anybody, we've got a huge opportunity."
With two non-league games against MIT and Brandeis this week, it's hard not to look ahead to next Saturday's matchup against Trinity. While the Bantams are 16-5 overall, they have a 2-2 division record, with two close wins over hapless Colby and a pair of losses to Bowdoin on Saturday, from whom the Jumbos took two games on Apr. 8, the first a 6-5 nail-biter and the second a 13-0 blowout.
"We need to sweep both games next Saturday if we want to be in prime position for the NESCAC playoffs," sophomore pitcher and first baseman Erica Bailey said. "We lost one to Trinity last year and we haven't forgotten what that felt like. They are a solid team and in order to beat them, the little things need to be done right. Execution is key."
With most of their starting spots and much of their talent concentrated in the freshman and sophomore classes, the team stumbled a bit out of the gate in 2006. But with their third straight perfect fielding game on Saturday, the Jumbos are slowly finding the groove that will carry them to success in the postseason.
"I think the freshmen know their roles really well, and they're going out there and getting their job done," Conroy said. "We have a ways to go, but I think we're going to be peaking right when we need to be."
"I'm hoping we have yet to peak," Barrett said. "I think we're definitely on the way up; at this point, we've just got to stick around."
For a team that hasn't peaked yet, a No. 13 national ranking and the top spot in the NESCAC East isn't a bad place to be at all.
